Sinn Féin - On Your Side

Great Irish sell off was a policy not an inevitability - Pearse Doherty TD

Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty TD has said the Prime Time special on the Great Irish Sell Off shows that the encouragement of vulture funds and their favourable tax treatment was a policy pursued by successive governments and not an inevitability.

Deputy Doherty said:

“I am sure that the Prime Time special will have shocked many people but for others it will only be too familiar. The core theme of the programme was that the entrance of vulture funds into this economy, with completely inadequate regulation and an incredibly generous tax treatment, was a political choice made by the government.

“After much campaigning by mortgage holders, whose mortgages were sold on from IBRC, the government produced legislation which regulated only the middle man. When Sinn Fein pushed an amendment which would have regulated the mortgage owner it was voted down by Fine Gael and Labour with Fianna Fail not present.

“Likewise, despite some very important improvements in the Finance Act this year, my proposal that the five year CGT exemption rule be ended was rejected. In short, the costs in tax terms and in social terms that have come with the Vulture funds was the result of a policy of accommodation, lax regulation and tax breaks taken by government. It was not an inevitability and it was the wrong choice.

“It is time to support Sinn Féin’s proposal for full regulation of these vultures and to close the remaining loopholes.”